Vascular tissue engineering

Abstract

Cardiovascular disease is one of the main causes of death in the industrialized society. In 2009, 87.534 and 17.583 patients were hospitalized in the Netherlands for treatment of ischemic heart disease and peripheral arterial disease, respectively. In both patient populations, the mortality rates are approximately 12% (1). For the treatment of cardiovascular disease, functional vascular grafts with an inner diameter less than 6 mm are needed. The availability and quality of autologous bypass grafts (e.g. mammary artery, saphenous vein) is frequently limited, especially in elderly patients. Although synthetic vascular grafts made from the polymers Dacron or Teflon perform reasonably well in large-diameter applications, these prostheses fail in small-diameter reconstructions due to thrombus formation and intima hyperplasia, hampering successful treatment of these patients.